


This House

by Insectopedia



Series: More Alike Then You'd Think [1]
Category: Lazy Town, LazyTown
Genre: (only for like... half the story tho OTL), Angst, Bullying, Domestic, Everyone appears but Ms. Busybody and Mayor Meanswell, Gen, Hopefully it'll be cute soon, I'm so sorry, Slight implication of Sportarobbie but they don't appear until the next installation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insectopedia/pseuds/Insectopedia
Summary: When Trixie ends up in a situation that Robbie Rotten finds hauntingly familiar, he's unable to stop himself from lending a hand.





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> I realized that you never see Trixie's house in Lazytown. I also noticed how similar Trixie and Robbie Rotten are (both in personality and what they fear) leading to this fanfiction. All I can say is I needed someone to write a cute domestic situation between the two of them...
> 
> Also sorry but, this first chapter is a bit angsty OTL It'll get better after this, I promise.
> 
> (TW: bullying  
> Rated teen and up for that reason and possible implications of abuse in further chapters)

Home. A simple word, composed of only four letters, but to Trixie it seemed to be made of a katrillion. 

When Sportacus laughed and told everyone it was time to go home for the evening, that it was getting dark and no-no they couldn’t play just  _ one _ more round of soccer it became an even more incomprehensible idea to the young child. She had always had a pretty poor concept of the word (was it simply the place you lived, was it the people who provided you with food or the place that you felt comfortable and safe?) but lately the meaning of such a small word had been bothering her a lot more.

It started a few weeks ago when, after a long day of playing, she scootered her way back “home” to the orphanage right outside of lazytown proper. If the orphanage was everything a home should be (as the people who ran it claimed) then, well she couldn't complain. She had been living there for as long as she could remember and it was a pretty okay place to live (all things considered) but that was before the establishment’s unofficial victim was adopted by parents who lived in a town far far away. Trixie had sort of been friends with the tiny boy so she was genuinely excited when she heard the news that he would no longer have to put up with the antics of Billy and Bob, the definitely official bullies of the orphanage. Yet, what she didn’t realize was that with the absence of her former friend, she would be the new victim in the never ending cycle of teasing and abuse that the two bullies thrived on. And, although she was a tough girl (to say the least) as night one quickly turned into week three she was finding herself less and less excited to snuggle under her red and yellow sheets at night. She was becoming afraid at their quickly escalating pranks. Rightfully so considering what they did to her after her evening meal that evening.

After dinner, she headed to the bathroom. She held her pajamas and bath towel in her tiny hands when, suddenly, two bulky bodies knocked into her causing her to land harshly on her butt and all her things to tumble across the concrete floor.

“HEY-” ,She began to shout only to stop, mid syllable when she realized who the perpetrators were. Suddenly her mouth was shut tight and her eyes were wide.

The two boys giggled. Billy was short, big, and younger than Bob who was lanky and had a birthmark that covered most of the right side of his face. Alone the two of them were ugly but together, they were repulsive

“Eheheh, look who we found Bob.” ,Drawled Billy

“More like caught!! Didn’t we tell this little rat not to come out after dinner?” ,Bob sneered while nudging the still floored Trixie with the heel of his shoe.

At this point, Trixie would have usually gotten up fists a’blaring with a few choice words coming proudly from her mouth but all she could muster was a small squeak. It was very unlike her to be afraid, to be unable to speak her mind or find a clever way out of the situation, but even the strongest and bravest people couldn’t stand up to  _ all _ their problems by themselves.

“Ah, Bob look-you’re right! She even squeaks like a mouse!”

“Rat, Billy, I said rat.” the taller of the two groaned before perking up a bit as he continued, “If she was a mouse we would simply let her scurry back to her hole but rats don’t have holes do they?”

“Nu-uh”

“And what do we do to little rats that don’t have a hole to run back to?”

Trixie didn’t like where this conversation was going. She really really did not like where it was going and so she quickly interrupted, just a bit too loudly with a bit too much hope, “You let them go!”

To which the two bullies blankly turned to her. They had to take a long moment to comprehend what she said before both of them burst into an ugly fit of laughter.

“No! We teach them a lesson!” ,they gleamed in unison (as they always did before they did something nasty to her, it was like their catchphrase or something).

Quickly springing up, Trixie tried her best to run away from a thick hand that was reaching for the collar of her shirt but she just wasn’t fast enough. A sick noise came from the back of her throat as she was pulled backwards and slammed into a nearby wall. Automatically, she attempted to retaliate by hitting them with her suddenly tightly balled fists but when she lifted her hand to swing it was also pushed against the wall with bruising force. Trixie glared at the two as they began to laugh and all three of them knew there was no chance for her to escape. But apparently, a fourth party-one of the administrators of the orphanage-was slow to realize the situation when she rounded the corner and stopped, at the end of the hall with a lame “Hey” ,falling from her lips.

It was only for a moment but the two bully’s grips loosened on the young girl as they were momentarily distracted. This time Trixie was quick enough and she forcefully broke their grasps then darted away. She could hear a few more ‘Heys!’ coming from behind her but she didn’t stop running. She ran and ran and ran some more-so much so that she knew Sportacus would be impressed-until, finally, she reached a familuar park in lazy town. Only then, in that safe space which, was more or less a home to her in terms of how it provided comfort, did she feel like she could rest. She didn’t have enough energy to pity herself or think much about what she was doing until she was already laying down on one of the benches and falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second fic i've ever posted anywhere and it's going to be my first multi chapter one.  
> Currently I have 7 chapters planned and then I have an inkling of what to do with the next installation in this series. Not sure how often imma be updating or anything but hopefully i'll get through this alright OTL
> 
> Constructive criticism is always welcome along with any other type of input.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. I Spy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie Rotten finds out the silence isn't always a perfect sound.

_ Sssschtik! _

Ah, the sweet sound of peeping. To Robbie Rotten few sounds were better then the sound of his purple periscope fully extending itself. He was  _ such _ a genius for inventing a machine that allowed him to look upon Lazytown without leaving the comfort of his own home. However, one noise that was sweeter than his laziness was the beautiful sound of  _ absolutely nothing _ he heard that morning when he had opened his eyes. At first he thought his ears were deceiving him and so he very carefully stayed in his fluffy orange chair to make sure it wasn’t a trick. Then he stayed there for a few more minutes so that he didn’t disturb it until finally the little voice of curiosity at the back of his cranium made him stand up (to which his back popped very loudly-causing him to cringe) and shuffle over to his current position behind his periscope.

Robbie Rotten decided to look upon the noisiest place in lazy town first. More exactly, the park which he focused on with a devious smirk on his lips. At first he panned around the scene slowly, memorizing each detail of the silent atmosphere before suddenly jerking back to look at something he had initially glazed over. The smile that had curled onto his lips stiffened as his eyes widened ever so slightly with a subtle mix of confusion and shock. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to see but certainly not one of Lazytown’s kids to be laying down on a bench, eyes closed with deep breaths like she was sleeping.

Luckily (for him at least) the super villain didn’t have time to contemplate the why of what he saw before the blissful silence he had almost taken for granted was broken by giggles and the pounding of footsteps. If he had been up on the surface he would have gotten whiplash from how fast he turned his contraption around to see the rest of the Brat Brigade tumbling into the park.

At that point he thought about slowly descending the twin eyes of his periscope and going back to bed but then he noticed the faces of all the kids fall when they spotted the sleeping girl.  ‘ _ Well this isn’t going to be fun’ _ ,Robbie thought and he took a moment to think some more to see if there was any way he could take advantage of the situation but nope. He didn’t have a reason to continue watching and the idea of sleep was getting more and mo-

“Trixie!” ,a high pitched voice called (snapping Robbie from his thoughts and causing him to automatically readjust his periscope despite the strong urge to go back to sleep). The gruff girl in mention popped up, as if she hadn’t been asleep at all. Squinting she rubbed her eyes as another one of her friends, the short blonde one, asked innocently, “What are you doing, Trixie?”

To which stinky-well, his name was close to that-piped up from the background before the girl could respond with a nasally, “Yeah, what are you doing on  my bench.”

‘Trixie’ looked confused, uncomfortable, and still disgruntled with sleep. But to her credit she was a quick thinker as she chimed in with a voice caked in sleep “I was just taking a nap” ,and then hopped off the bench.

She began to stretch and while she did so the carrot haired looking one scrunched up his eyes at her and said in a deep accent, “On a bench?”

Although the question was innocent enough, there was a moment where Trixie looked like she had been caught taking a cookie out of her parent’s cookie jar. If Robbie wasn’t used to paying attention to the details he might have missed it because as soon as it appeared it was gone, replaced with a short laugh and a, “Well I wouldn’t have fallen asleep if you guys hadn’t taken so long to get here.”

She still looked unconvincing but apparently the kids bought it and each of them smiled brightly. Robbie couldn’t suppress the hefty eye roll he automatically did as he quickly snapped his periscope shut. He decided that he had heard enough and began to stomp away, shoulders slumped and mental cogs whirring as the kids above him began to go back to their normally loud and obnoxious selves. Gritting his teeth and looking more than annoyed, Robbie was beginning to decide between creating a new contraption to shut them up or simply burying his face in a hearty slice of cake when all too soon he noticed that the noise above him stopped. They couldn’t have possibly been done playing-it had only been 3 minutes at most-so what was it? Unhunching his shoulders, the villain tentatively straightened as he looked back towards his periscope. Should he take the blessing and use the opportunity to fall back asleep or… argh he was going to regret it later but Robbie started to pull out the telescope to see what had caused the sudden calm.

“-re okay?!” ,Robbie heard one of them ask as he focused in one them. They were still at the park (duh) but this time they were all huddled around the triponytailed one as she sat on the floor.

Tricky (that was her name right?) only looked embarrassed at all the attention. Her face was flushed, her eyes squinted in annoyance and there might have been a few tears collecting at the corners of them as she opened her mouth to shout, “Of course I am!!”

“You don’t look okay…” ,one of them (it didn’t really matter who) muttered and for a moment Trickle looked like she was about to yell something mean in return but instead was still and tense for a moment before she slumped slightly. “Well… maybe I’m still a little tired.”

Standing up she brushed off her pants causing Robbie Rotten’s eyebrows to hit the ceiling. Tired? One of those brats were anything other then jumping off the walls with energy? He didn’t really pay too much attention to what they were saying after that. He only watched the girl scuff her feet a little bit, the others looking concerned, before watching the girl sit down on the bench again while the others, tentatively, went back to playing. He was too focused on his own thoughts and how he could find out what had tired her out so much so that he could replicate it for all the other kids in town when his clever eyes noticed something that made his train of thought stop.

As the girl sat down, her hand slipped from where she attempted to put it on the edge of the bench. She quickly correct herself and placed it firmly on the worn out wood but she didn’t correct her sleeve which had shimmed up, a little above her wrist. In the sunlight, shone a dark bruise on the newly exposed flesh. It was an insignificant detail that he shouldn’t have found so important. After all those kids were always running and jumping and doing dangerous things like  _ playing _ so to have a bruise or two here or there wasn’t a big deal. But if it was from sports then why did it form in the shape of fingers?

There was a sudden thickness in Robbie’s throat and a weight to his eyes that he hadn’t noticed just seconds before. Almost too quickly the tall man closed his periscope-this time for good-and works his hardest to not overthink. Better yet, he tries not to think at all as he heavily slinks to his orange chair and topples into it. A nap? Yep a nap would be excellent right now. It’d be much better then pondering why a little girl would have such an oddly shaped bruise on her wrist, why she had been sitting on the floor when she was supposed to be playing and, even worse why she had been sleeping on a bench. Those were thoughts for a different time that, hopefully, would never ever come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmm okay I guess i'm going to try and update this weekly. I might take a break next week (or post it early) because it's the holidays but otherwise school sucks and I don't have much time to write other then on Sundays.
> 
> Just as a heads up this fic might have more then 7 chapters. I had a bit of trouble keeping on track this chapter and although I made it, next chapter is going to be longer meaning this more room for the storyline to veer of course. Not that that's a bad thing ;^)
> 
> Anyways thank you so much for reading, if anything doesn't make sense or you'd just like to give me some criticism please leave a comment!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!


	3. Rock meets Hardplace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie reflects on the decisions she's made.

_ “Trixie…” _

 

_ “Trixie…” _

 

_ “Tri-” _

 

There was a garbled noise of surprise followed by a heavy  _ ooumph _ as Trixie woke up and promptly fell off the bench she had been sleeping on.

 

“Whaa..?” ,the small girl muttered as she rubbed her eyes for the second time that morning and blinked up at her friend, Pixel.

 

The technophile smiled softly in return and offered his hand to help her stand. “Sorry to wake you.” he soothed,  “We were just wondering if you wanted some sportscandy. You’ve been sleeping for a while now.”

 

Trixie blinked. “Sleeping! I don’t even remember laying down” ,she chirped as she finally stood up. Tilting her body to look behind her friend, she saw the others happily munching away at various colorful fruits and vegetables with their hero, Sportacus. The sight of all the tasty and energy rich foods caused her stomach to grumble and she realized that she hadn’t eaten since dinner last night!

 

“Haha, well I guess I shouldn’t apologize.” ,Pixel responded to the very audible noise of Trixie’s stomach and then turned to go join the others. Trixie followed happily along, more focused on the food then the greetings she received and although she wasn’t rude it was very obvious that she was starved. So obvious in fact that after scarfing down two apples she looked up from her third to see everyone quietly looking at her.

 

“What?” Trixie voice was muffled by the food she had in her mouth, “Do I have something on my face, Pinkie?”

 

Stephanie was the first to speak. “No…” she hesitated, “Well yes you have a bit of juice on your chin, it’s just…”

 

Trixie, who had begun whipping her chin with the sleeve of her shirt, almost missed the look Stephanie gave Sportacus who seemed to understand something in the way Stephanie’s eyebrows were quirked.

 

“Are you okay Trixie?” ,Sportacus finished for Stephanie, a sort of parental concern etched into his features.

 

Taken aback, Trixie took an extra moment to scoff, “Uh… yeah why wouldn’t I be?” Her delivery was clumsy to say the least. There was a certain edge to her voice that made it seem sarcastic-fake-and although she was usually pretty good at pretending she didn’t even believe her own performance. There was another moment of awkward silence, in which Trixie put down her unfinished apple and could do nothing more then wait in anticipation of their reactions.

 

“Well” it was Stingy who spoke first, with an uninterested half lidded gaze that didn’t match the accusatory attitude he threw at her, “ you’re eating all of  my apples.”

 

“And you slept on the bench all morning!” ,Ziggy added helpfully

 

“You fe-” ,Pixel started to say only for Trixie to put up both her hands in interruption.

 

“Woah Woah!! Okay!” She stopped them, waggling her hands around. This was just too much. “Alright I might be acting a little funny but that’s just because… that’s just because…” a shadow of uncertainty slipped through her face before it brightened once again with a good excuse, “ I stayed up too late last night!” She said the last part as if a light bulb had gone off over her head. And to an extent, it did considering she was able to explain her predicament without lying to her friends (something she didn’t think she was able to do-especially with Sportacus looking at her like that).

 

In response the others slowly nodded. They didn’t seem as enthusiastic as Trixie but they looked like they believed her. At least, enough for them to smile and spring up when Trixie suggested that they play a game of tag. 

 

The group thought less and less of Trixie’s odd behavior as the sun travelled across the sky and, by the end of the day, everyone had all but forgotten-the young trickster included. Before anyone knew it, it was sunset and everyone was stretching and yawning with exhaustion. The day had been spent well, with everyone playing and having a great time, but Sportacus was now telling the kids it was time for bed and the smile that had been so stubbornly stuck to Trixies face was beginning to fall. 

 

Trixie began to feel uncertain as everyone started to say goodnight and head to their homes. Each time she crinkled her eyes in a ‘cheery’ goodnight she felt the enthusiasm lessen in her voice and the happiness in her smile drip down to form a heavy pit in her stomach. She finally remembered that she didn’t have a home to turn back to and that, with each person she waved off, she was one opportunity shorter of getting help. The thought crawled into her mind that maybe she should suggest a sleepover or… possibly… tell someone? She was nervous and had no clue how to handle the situation (which was so unlike the fearless bravery that she pridefully let personify her). All she understood is that she couldn’t go back to the orphanage. Well, maybe she technically “could” but she’d rather get stung by 12 bees before going back and dealing with what she had left behind because she was absolutely positively certain that all she was going to be met with was a whole lot of bad, bad,  _ bad _ .

 

The unusual meekness and fear that she was experiencing must have shown on her face because, while everyone else was walking away, Sportacus crouched down to her eye level in that way he really only did if he was seriously concerned and asked if anything was bothering her.

 

Trixie couldn’t remember what she said the second after it passed through her lips but she knew she had blown him off. Dismissed the offer with a tight hug and then turned away. In the back of her mind she really would have rather hugged him a bit longer and said something else. Infact, as she began to drag her feet away she had to bite her lip to keep from spilling out the words she actually wanted to say. It was like being stuck between a bad place and an even worser place. On one hand, continuing how she was assured that no one would look down on her. No one would think she wasn’t the cool tough girl of the group-no one would get ideas about her being less brave then she actually was (or, even worse, get the idea that maybe they could push her around stuck in their heads) but she felt like she was  _ lying _ . Wasn’t keeping the truth from people exactly what lying was? Trixie hated the idea of lying-actually lying without the intention of good fun-to not only her friends but the one person in town who said he’d always be there when she needed him. She could practically feel the disappointment on her friends faces, the hurt in their words when they realized she hadn’t been honest with them. Either way she felt like she could very well end up friendless and that was not a line she was willing to cross.

  
As she walked and thought about the consequences of her actions, Trixie’s head began to droop and her feet began to scuff across the dusty sidewalks of Lazytown. She was aimless, she didn’t even have the spare energy to think about where she was heading-much less where she should be going. The only thing she could do was continue and it made her feel sick. Her thoughts weighed her down and the fact that no one was there to notice only made her feel worse. If she could be summed up in one word, it would be sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OoOOOO boi I am so bad at writing dialogue so apologies for that. aaaa
> 
> Anyways the most important things I have to say is that, firstly, i'm going to upload another chapter of this in an hour or two (it's gonna be a robbie POV chapter which means it should be more readable,, i'm not as comfortable writing trixie OTL) and, secondly, I actually have the next 4 chapters drafted (they've been drafted since a little after I posted chapter 2 lol) so I should be able to post them a bit more evenly.
> 
> As for other things I just want to mention i'd like to point out that this story is going to be a lot longer then I initially planned. Currently you'll see the chapter count is at 9 but i'm atleast 90% sure that it'll take more then 9 chapters to say everything I want to. I tend to be long winded so anything less might result in chapters more akin to giants and i'd rather not lay that down on everyone. Then again, I didn't intend to be laying down angst for the first 4 or 5 chapters so we will see how that goes.
> 
> Finally thank you guys for sticking around!! I appreciate every kudos and comment it really makes me glad that other people are enjoying this nonsense as much as I am so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave criticism if it's needed!!


	4. Rubbed Raw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nap time's over-it's time for Robbie to get ROTTEN.

Ee _eeiiiiiIIIIAAAAAaa **ooAaaaeeeee bing bing bANG**_

 

Sirens! Sirens were going off and bells and whistles and suddenly Robbie Rotten was toppling out of his chair-too startled to worry about the pain his fall caused. Instead he jumped up and scrambled around his lair quickly quieting the various sources of noise in a frenzy. 

 

“DARN MACHINES!” ,He admonished when the last of them had finally been smacked with a heavy hammer or politely flipped off. Sweat was beading on his forehead at the mild form of exercise and he was hunched over, panting. 

 

“Now why would they-” ,stopping mid-sentence he cleverly remembered the answer to his own question (although he paled at the realization, too frightened to be proud).

 

He whipped around and quickly down a heavy set of monitors. They showed him the area outside of his lair. Well, some of it. It was a bit too dark to see everything since the sun had already set but due to the flashing lights and warning signs that still peppered the corners of the monitors he knew that if he just looked slightly closer he would see that someone was a bit too close to his lair-which is what caused all his Anti-Visitor Alarms to go off.

 

Squinting harshly at the monitors he soon spotted the intruder which was… that walking bad hair day of a girl he had been ~~worrying about~~  spying on earlier! A sneer creased his lips as he finally turned off the last of his alerts and focused solely on her.

 

She was walking at a subdued pace, hands in her pockets and head bent as if she had just seen a puppy getting kicked (or whatever else made little girls sad). She then heavily sat down against the cow billboard and time seemed to stop as she leaned right into the purple cow... right outside of Robbie’s lair.

  
The villain reeled pulling back from his monitor with the cringiest face he could make and his teeth clenched tight. What? Why? WHAT!? Spinning away from the monitor he began to pace. How had she even gotten there! No one EVER came near his billboard and-and wasn’t it that brats be time it was so awfully late shouldn’t she be _ home _ by now? Robbie swirled back to look at the little pest and saw her put her face in her hands. And, although the audio wasn’t as good as it should be he could have swore that he heard a series of small sniffles begin to shake the girls throat. Robbie froze. As still as an ice sculpture he found himself unable to move as he watched the girls shoulders hitch a few times and her tears getting a bit louder-a bit more crisp in his speakers. Wha…. what? This was the first time in a long while Robbie found himself unable to comprehend exactly what was happening but at this point even his mind was frozen. Although he would later-and in the future-deny it, the first thought that came to him in his muddled confusion was where’s Sportacus? Why wasn’t he there? Clearly the little girl was having a problem (although Robbie didn’t have the faintest idea what had happened) so shouldn’t her hero be there to fix it? When he had spent a solid moment or two considering the idea Robbie then wondered if he could just ignore this issue until it went away (like he did with all of his other problems) but something inside of him was telling him that this wasn’t just an everyday average ‘superhero-come-save-me’ delima. Robbie could feel his shoulders hunching slowly as he came to terms with the idea that maybe there was a reason Sportacus wasn’t being alerted to the problem. The villain tentatively turned to look properly at the screen and then felt something inside of him go… soft-and not in the good ooeey gooey frosting way but in the ‘good gravy I actually have feelings (someone take them away)’ type of way. He blew out a breathe of realization as he stood up straight and pulled down on his waist coat. Then, brushing back his hair, he started to make his way out of his lair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I guess i'll post one more chapter tonight since I forgot how short this one was ;^)


	5. Little Talks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie Rotten and Trixie finally have a Heart To Heart™.

Robbie’s arms and legs shook as they usually did when he climbed out of his silo and the usual fear of falling hit him as he jumped off the few rungs of the connecting ladder but it was distant. Or at least, not directly the reason why he was shaking and his heart was hammering a hundred miles a minute. This time, his anxiety could be explained by the absurdly loud sobs of the child in front of his domain. Those shock him harder.

 

He was quiet as he opened the door that split open the billboard and although he meant to step out proudly his actions were equally meek as he cautiously peeked his head out from behind the new opening. Robbie watched the girl who was openly weeping-snot dripping down her face and all-in the industrial strength lights that lit the picturesque painting. She was so caught up in whatever angst she felt that, although he stood there for quite a few minutes, just watching her little body convulsing with her messed up breath, she didn’t notice. He had to clear his throat twice (since the first one came out too soft) before she finally jerked up and looked at him with red rimmed eyes and a face that looked like it had been splashed with ocean water.

 

“Robbie Rotten!” She yelped in what he figured was supposed to be the usual accusatory way the kids always did when they saw the laziest man in Lazytown-however her voice was so hoarse and she was so obviously out of her element that it came out as some weird hybrid of a croak and a squeak. The young girl then scrambled away from him, she looked too weak to stand but she managed to create more distance between them before she began yelling, “You rotten coward!! What are you doing sneaking up on people like that? How much of a villian a-”

 

And she would have probably continued ranting with her face contorting into a red ball of aimless anger (despite how clearly  _ in need _ she was) if Robbie hadn’t stepped fully out from behind the billboard and pointed a finger down at her with a bit of his own temper sparking. 

 

“Listen here!” He snapped harshly enough that the already frightened girl clamped shut, “I am here because  _ someone _ decided to come to  _ my  _ billboard and wake  _ me _ up with  _ their _ problems! It seems to me like  _ i’m _ the victim here!”

 

At this point he was looming over her, creating a thin but menacing shadow on her body as she sat, shaking like a leaf in the warm summer air. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him simply breathing heavily like she couldn’t manage to do anything else. Robbie, for all the anger he had let simmer over, lowered his finger as his face softened slightly. He slouched, as he usually did when he felt that he was out of place and then turned so that he was facing the wide expanse of the grass separating him and Lazytown. 

 

“Or, well” he mumbled in a quieter yet persuasive tone after he had taken a moment to collect his bearings, “I could go back to my cozy home and leave you here to be all alone.”

 

Immediately the young girl snapped out a surprisingly strong hand to grab his ankle around while she blubbered in blind terror, “No! D-Don’t go!! I c-can-nt-”

 

Robbie didn’t let her finish, cutting her off by ripping his ankle away (practically falling over in the process) and buzzing a fierce _ Shhhhh!  _ That startled the hysteric girl first into a brief moment of silence and then back into tears.

 

Robbie watched, a grimace on his face both for the fact that, well, he had come here with the intention to help (although he wouldn’t ever fully admit that) yet all he had done was make her more upset and because he hated the sound of crying kids, he hated the feelings it brought up in him. He didn’t react for a few moments as the young girl cried fiercely with no end in sight (he had figured out that he needed to use a bit of forethought before acting since all he had done so far was make everything worse) before he squatted down slowly-his body creaking as he lowered himself. Crouching down next to her he then sat. He took a great deal of time to do these simple actions as if it took a large amount of concentration, which wasn’t far from the truth. After a longer pause he then put a hand on her back and… patted her awkwardly. He couldn’t look at her as he did so but he managed to pat her back and then rub a few small circles into it and before he knew it his face was red. It was red and he was now staring with determination at the grassy expanse that separated them from the distant houses of Lazytown with a surprisingly heavy girl sitting in his lap. He held her a little too tightly to be considered impartial and he was trying so hard to not let the tightness in his chest overcome him.

 

After a while of them sitting like that, Trixie finally calmed down. The tremors that rocked her body became hiccups and soon all the tears on her face were drying. But, even when she was clearly done crying Robbie continued to hold her, a hand wrapped loosely around her waist while the other one awkwardly continued patting and rubbing slow circles into her back. He still hadn’t looked at he and he didn’t do so until she pulled herself from his grasp and shifted so that she was sitting in the dirt next to him. Still, even when Robbie looked at her with his steely grey eyes they seemed to be seeing something else then the small girl next to him. They were hardened with something impossibly difficult to place, something that the girl shied away from when she attempted to meet his eyes.

 

“...Thank you.” came Trixie’s eventual reply; her voice was hoarse but she still managed to mumble, “I just… I just don’t…”

 

She looked down as she trailed off. She didn’t know she still had tears but it felt as though she was going to cry again.

 

“Don’t.”

 

Trixie looked up at Robbie who for once wasn’t making a goofy face or hunched over as if he was about to do something melodramatic. Instead he was calm, stable, the anchor that she hadn’t known that she needed.

 

“Don’t tell me. It’s not important enough that you need to force yourself to say anything. Some things need time.” ,he continued his earlier thought in a voice that almost seemed strained. All Trixie could do was nod, a thick knot in her throat as she looked up at the one person in town she had considered meaner than herself.

 

Robbie Rotten then said the only thing left to say (which just so happened to be the one thing he had wanted to say from the beginning), “You can stay with me tonight, if you want to of course.”

 

There was silence for half a second as Trixie looked up at the man. Then, there was a question on her tongue, but before she could find the words to say them Robbie stood up and brushed his shirt off. He didn’t offer a hand to help her up but instead started walking to his house mumbling something about his shirt being stained. Usually, Trixie would have been insulted or guilty or something equally as negative but instead, upon hearing his grumbles she laughed-a sound which grated against the mood of the situation but couldn’t be described as anything but earnest. It earned her a perturbed and moody glance back from the tall purple man but that only made her face split open with a raw but genuine grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, after this I should only post one per week so expect something next Sunday.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you're enjoying it; please feel free to leave a comment if you find anything wonky or just want to say something-I appreciate it!!


	6. Stormy Weather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie said to give it time, some things couldn't be said right away. Well, time has passed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ughhhh sorry for this taking forever.  
> I just really didn't want to write this chapter or the one after it (but it's integral to the plot-specifically the cute sportarobbie stuff that i'm dead set on including-so I had to work though it). Well, that and i've been getting distracted by the other 4 lazy town stories that i'm writing but probably never going to post lol fml
> 
> Unless something comes up i'm also going to post another chapter tonight. This and the next chapter were meant to be one chapter, after all, and I really want them gone so I don't have to fret over them any more.

It had been a few days since what Robbie dubbed as “The Incident” had happened. Surprisingly, they had gone by relatively smooth. The first night, after Trixie had sauntered into his lair looking like something the cow licked she had fallen asleep snuggle on the carpeted floor beneath his feet. When the lazy villain had awoken she was gone without a word. At first, he was ashamed to admit, he had been a little worried. A quick trip outside of his lair revealed that she was okay and playing with her friends-smiling as if she hadn’t just had a meltdown that could rival one of Robbie’s. The man had left it at that and slunk back to his lair. Later that day he noticed that there was a dirty dish in a place he didn’t leave one but otherwise it was almost like she hadn’t been there.

That night, however, she returned as Robbie was hammering away at one of his machines. Neither of them did anything more then gaze at the other. Before long the energetic youngster had fallen asleep on his carpet again. This routine lasted for most of the next week with little change. Robbie gave her a blanket eventually, she brought home a bit of sports candy which she kept out of sight of Robbie (and he didn’t complain although he thought harshly about it), and there was an awkward exchange around day 3 where he made her take a bath and thanked his genius mind for making a 2 minute washer and dryer but other then that she would leave in the morning as quiet as a ghost and come back to sleep at his feet.

It wasn’t until a terrible thunderstorm hit lazy town that Robbie found himself unable to stick to small talk. When he had woken up that morning it had been to the racket of Trixie throwing something that was Definitely Not Meant To Be Thrown against the wall of his bunker like it was a simple ball.

“What!” ,He sputtered immediately sitting up (causing his back to pop caustically).

Trixie seemed unphased, giggling as she caught what Robbie recognized as a sphere of failed candy (it had ended up a bit too spoingy) when it bounced back to her. She turned around and teased, “Took you long enough, I thought you were gonna sleep foreeeeever.”

“W-What are you doing here with that!!”

“What, it’s not like i’ve been sleeping over every night for the past week and-oh this? I found it in the trash. I didn’t know you even had balls in this joint.”

Robbie’s looked at her through eyes that were half lidded in annoyance, trying to think of a witty reply despite the fact that he hadn’t awoken in the best of circumstances and in the face of the girl finally pointing out their situation which, up until that point hadn’t been talked about so blatantly. It was almost jarring to here her finally say it, especially in such a nonchalant way. In the end the best he could come up with was a dull, “That’s not a ball it’s candy.”

Standing up he adjusted his sleeping robes as she looked at the ‘ball’ then shrugged and opened her mouth to say something else that was probably smug and annoying. But, before she could get more than a syllable out Robbie interrupted venomously, “Why aren’t you outside shouldn’t you be playing with a  _ real _ ball  _ outside _ ?”

“I can’t” Came the simple, casual, reply before the girl started bouncing the ball again and again. It was like she didn’t even notice how intimidating he was! Or, like she didn’t care

“Cant?” he quipped before stuttering slightly in an attempt to regain her attention,“What do you-Q-quit that will you-what do you mean can’t!?”

This time Tricky (or Trickle, something like that, he reaffirmed) seemed like she was listening a bit more intently, as she threw the ‘ball’ through the air (causing Robbie to duck and flinch despite not being in the ball’s way) and into the trash before replying. “It’s thundering out there. Sportacus says never to go outside if you can help it during heavy thunderstorms!”

Robbie took a moment to mash his mouth in a mocking way as he feigned the ‘sportacus said’ part of her sentence before abruptly leveling her with an icy glare, “Well, who said you were allowed to stay in here Tricks!”

“It’s Trixie and you did when you told me I could sleep at your house!” ,she leaned forward and stuck her palms up as if to imply it was the simplest concept in the world.

“Yeah but I never said you could continue staying that was just a one night thing!” ,although it was ridiculous, he felt like she had intruded. Maybe it was because she had dared to wake him up but at this point he was actually more than a bit upset at the fact that she was didn’t seem to understand that this wasn’t her house. She couldn’t just crash here for as long as she wanted, bring in sportscandy and then treat him with such little respect. He was a villain, an adult, someone to be respected and feared!

Trixie stilled, her lackadaisical confidence sliding off of her as she realized what Robbie was implying. Up until that point, their voices had risen loud enough that when she didn’t yell back the silence it created almost hurt her own ears. And then her reply, so quiet and spoken with downcast eyes, as if it wasn’t even meant for him, was almost too loud.

“What do you mean only one night..?” ,she muttered almost inaudibly.

Robbie was oblivious to the softness in her voice as he turned away with a huff and started pacing up to his automatic wardrobe. Dramatic and clearly caught up in his own indignation, “What? You think I like tripping over a brat like you when I get up for my midnight snack?” His words hurt. A hot knife through butter.

He suddenly whirled to her pointing an accusatory finger from where he stood on higher ground, “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the sportscandy hiding in my fridge! You’re lucky I didn’t replace it with sugar fruit!”

The young girl heard what he was saying but it seemed to travel a great distance before it hit her ears. She felt stupid for being so numb (no, she just felt stupid in general) but she was still shocked over the one night bit. What did he mean that she could only stay one night? Well… now that he said it the concept made sense but for some reason Trixie had just thought that… well that she could stay!

Suddenly angry Trixie began to stomp to the exit tube of Robbie’s lair. Robbie who had started ranting to her while she was thinking suddenly stuttered when he realized she wasn’t listening quietly anymore. “Hu-what? Where are you going! I’m trying to ta-”

“I’m leaving!” ,Trixie shouted at him, not even pausing to look back at him.

Robbie’s eyelids fluttered at this, “Leaving? Didn’t you just say tha-”

“Yeah yeah! Well you’re the one who said I wasn’t wanted so I guess i’ll just go sit in the rain and catch a cold or something!”

“Now listen here, I never said tha-” ,his tone was a bit lower than it had been a moment before, softer too as he finally began to realize that maybe she was taking this a bit more seriously than he was.

“Uhuh you just said I couldn’t continue staying here!” ,Trixie was practically screaming now. She had turned to face the taller man, hands balled into fists with her face tomato red as she looked up at Robbie.

Just like that, the faint wisps of understanding dissipated. The gravity of the situation escaped him and he was overcome with just as much heat as she was, “I thought you’d go home by now!”

There was a sharp intake of breath. Robbie blinked, anger still clouding his vision as he watched the young girl deteriorate. She looked as if Robbie had just slapped her. Shock, betrayal, anger, and confusion all mixed into her face to form something paranormally serene. Something Robbie had seen in the mirror only when he had really been hurt.

That was what made Robbie understand, the familiar pain that he blindly hadn’t recognized simply because he hadn’t been the one feeling it. He blinked, scrambling to figure out what he had done to hurt her so bad, all the while fighting against that tightness in his chest that he hadn’t felt since “The Incident”.

He was almost too caught up in his own thoughts to notice her spinning around again and beginning to crawl out of his home. But with a lame sound of vague contention he frantically moved to catch her,  _ actually physically catch her  _ (something he didn’t do lightly) by quickly speed walking to where she stood and then grabbing her arm. She shook it off immediately and twirled around to glare absently up at him-as if hatred was the only shell she could wear that would protect her at this point. It hurt Robbie to see her this raw and he remembered how, on that first night, quietly despite the fact that he had looked so calm, how he really had wanted to avoid the situation. He didn’t want her to speak under the pretense that it would hurt more which, yes, was true (it was honestly too soon) but more importantly because he didn’t want to hear it. He couldn’t handle it.

Picking up the overly emotional ball of bad hair and frumpy clothes, he barely registered the threats and light kicks he received as he dumped the girl in his chair, trapped her by putting a hand on either arm rest and then bent down so that they were at eye level.

“Talk to me.” was all he said.

Trixie stopped at that. She was numb right now (as she had been for the past few minutes) and working on autopilot. Maybe that’s where she got the courage to take in a shaky breath and, after a heavy pause that almost made Robbie give into the voice that told him to run away, started talking. The lack of thought she put into it allowed her lips to move freely as she explained almost emotionlessly how she was an orphan (not a big deal that’s not why she was upset), how her friend had been adopted (a bit more of a big deal, her breathing might have changed), how she had been bullied how she had run away and slept on a bench (definitely an open sore she was mumbling, tripping over her words with her eyes trying to find a corner of the room where she couldn’t see Robbie’s enveloping presence) but the worst part lay in the last few words she said-the last thought that she had been avoiding due to how genuinely  _ scared _ it made her.

“... but if I tell ‘em I don’t think they’d be my friends any-y more. I mean-n, who’d want to be friend’s with a me-ean coward like me? Who-o’d want to put up with me?” ,there were tears in her eyes as she finished and it took almost everything she had not to let them spill.

She trailed off at that leaving an awful silence resonating throughout the overly spacious bunker. She hadn’t really noticed it before but in her effort to not cry and to stay strong, she noticed that this place looked absolutely scary. All the cold machinery, all the rusty or broken odds and ends made her shrink into the only comforting piece of furniture in the whole place. Whether she realized it or not she was desperate for comfort and after a few minutes of simply shaking in the chair she finally managed to look up at the real thing she was avoiding, the man who had more or less been taking care of her for the past week, only to see how pale he was.

Robbie’s eyes weren’t even focused on her as he contemplated what she had said. She had phrased something so complex so eloquently using less than a sentence. She’d phrased something that Robbie had struggled with for years so simply that it almost made Robbie want to break something. What was she nine? Who had the right to make her feel like that? Why didn’t anybody notice or care or just-or just anything! Didn’t she have friends? Why did she feel the same way as a kooky old villain who didn’t have a single friend to call his own. Who had to play pretend with children and who couldn’t even manage to get out of bed most mornings. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t have the right to feel that way and no one else had the right to make her  _ feel _ something so severe.

Standing up swiftly enough that Trixie pushed back into the chair with surprise, Robbie swiftly took the blanket the kid had been sleeping with off the floor and wrapped it almost too tightly around her shoulders. Briskly he went to his cake maker, automatically making a slice of cake as if he had been born and raised to do so. Indignation defined his movements and irreproachable sadness turned him into something that looked unstoppable. Trixie barely recognized him as a piece of cake was shoved into her frightened hands but Robbie didn’t seem to notice.

“Eat. I’ll be back.” ,The villain growled. He made only one stop before walking out of the bunker and that was to grab a piece of paper and a pencil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I feel like you guys should know,,,, this was the original chapter summery from my draft:   
> "before he finally acts a bit more like an adult and says ho tell me what happened or else you’re getting kicked out right now in the rain and cold."
> 
> I feel like that's the entirety of this story...
> 
> Anyways thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it!!


	7. Catharsis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is that a rain drop rolling down Robbie's cheek or a tear drop?   
> Otherwise known as that chapter where SportaRobbie (almost) finally becomes a thing.

“A letter!” Sportacus exclaimed as he backflipped out of his pilot seat and popped a hand out to catch the metal tube that quickly swished through his air ship. He fumbled slightly, due to how wet it was but managed to catch it without completely dropping it. Quickly, he then worked to open the letter. However, almost immediately after he popped the cap off he paused with thoughtful surprise at the color of the paper. It was purple, something he hadn’t seen before, and when he unravelled it he found that the calligraphy was also new. It was spidery and seemed to shift in and out of cursive without any discernable pattern. For some reason, Sportacus was sure that he could stare at it all day-even though he didn’t know who wrote it.

 

Shaking his head he then began to actually  _ read _ the letter which simply said:

Come down. 

Now.

-Robbie Rotten

 

Oh. Sportacus’ eyebrows shoot up in surprise. The message didn’t tell him much about the situation and for a moment, the elf felt tentative to leave his airship (he told himself it was because of the massive storm) but, like the good hero he was, the elf quickly pedaled his way to hover over the mailbox and then began his descent downwards.

Whatever he was expecting was nothing compared to the sight he was greeted with. Specifically, a sopping wet Robbie Rotten-hair curling in protest to the rain persistently hammering down on it, makeup smeared and dripping off of his chin, and body so taught that he couldn’t possibly shiver even though the rain was close to being hail. Even worse, however was what his soaked body said. Robbie’s arm were crossed as if they were nailed together. His jaw, set and the glint in the villain’s eyes held a dark intent that had nothing to give but apathy for everything but the center of his disconcerted mood.The chill that went down Sportacus’ back was more severe than anything the brisk wind and cold rain could have produced.

Sportacus opened his mouth to speak, eyebrows naively drawn together in concern only to be interrupted by the agitated villain whose voice did everything but physically cut the blue man.

“Does your crystal not work?” ,there was so much anger in Robbie’s voice. So much, it left Sportacus feeling frantic and lost.

“What, I don’t think I-”

“Or is being hurt to the point where you don’t think you  _ deserve _ a friendly smile not worthy of your time Sportajerk?”

Sportacus didn’t know what to say. He was too confused and uncertain to properly form thoughts (much less sentences) but it wasn’t like Robbie was near ready to let him even think enough to get a few words out.

“Does hating yourself not count as trouble?” The villain rambled on, a disheveled look in his eye which spoke volumes about how exhausted he was, “What about showing up with bruises-did you even see them or were you too caught up preaching about  _ eating healthy _ and  _ playing baseball _ to realize that someone was hurting? Hurting deeper then you could ever understand mr. perfect? I’ve seen your crystal beep when someone so much as frowns so why wasn’t it screaming when so many tears were falling that it was hard to breathe?” Robbie looked like he wanted to say more but his voice cracked and it looked as if some of the water on his face wasn’t just water streaming from his ruined hair. Red rimmed, his steely grey eyes shone with so much pain that Sportacus found himself petrified. Still he struggled against the thickness in his throat to rest a hand on Robbie’s shoulder (which was definitely shaking now) and mumble, “Robbie…”

He was immediately shoved off not politely or gently either. Infact, Robbie literally shoved the hero back a few steps as he roared, “DON’T TOUCH ME! You don’t deserve to comfort me or call yourself a hero sportazero. You don’t deserve to think you can do anything when you couldn’t even-couldn’t even..!” Robbie began crying openly at that. He didn’t even try to hide his face as tears ran down it and his mouth shuddered too much to allow much sound out. And, somehow, though this broken display, he managed to glare at Sportacus. Despite how utterly helpless this would have looked on anyone else Robbie was glaring so fiercely that Sportacus was certain that he was stronger than anyone the elf had ever met. Sportacus could only yield by giving him a moment to get his point across before he tried again.

“Robbie,” Sportacus called, this time with a bit more urgency despite his gentle tone, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice. You're right, I don’t deserve to call myself a hero. I was meant to help everyone in Lazy town but I didn’t pay attention to everyone did I?”

Robbie sneered a bit at that but he was quiet and Sportacus was able to keep a hand on his shoulder this time. The hero knew he shouldn’t be touching the taller man but he wasn’t perfect. He needed to touch Robbie-not even to make sure that he was okay but because he  _ needed _ to. Seeing the normally independant town villain come to him so openly-more so, with such anger-made Sportacus feel like he was made of paper thin glass. Sure, he had always been able to see through himself but to hear someone else acknowledge that Sportacus wasn’t perfect-that he hadn’t always been there for everyone and that maybe he couldn’t be-was shattering. Even more so, the man who was able to see this and was therefore hurting so deeply that he couldn’t be silent anymore was the one person Sportacus had unknowingly been relying on. He was the one person that was always consistent. Sure, he did get upset but it could be categorized more as moody then desperate. His temperament was stable and the idea that it wasn’t always that way was devastating. And, it was a little more than that too because Sportacus was talking about Robbie Rotten. Robbie who was apparently hurt more than Sportacus thought was possible. Robbie who-Robbie who-well... now wasn’t the time for Sportacus to be feeling sorry for himself or to try and unravel the why’s and how's of the unspoken tension between them. It was time for him to help.

Sportacus dared to pull Robbie into a hug. At first the villain tensed, as if he was about to pull out of the shorter man’s loose but sturdy grip but instead Robbie succumbed to his urges in his vulnerable state and allowed Sportacus to pull him sort of out of the rain to the slim space under his blimp (where there was less of it atleast). While they were so close Sportacus began rubbing Robbie’s back-trying to share his warmth and dryness the best he could. Trying to share as much as he could without words before beginning in a quiet yet falsely confident tone, “You’re brave for opening up to me. I should have said something sooner and you are right to say I wasn’t doing a good job. I noticed you had been more introverted lately but I didn’t know you had been feeling like this. You deserve friends Robbie. I understand that you don’t think so but the the children an-”

Sportacus was cut off by Robbie suddenly jerking away. Mentally, the hero was preparing his next move, as he so often did when he was in Sportacare mode but he found his next course of action stopped dead when Robbie yelped, “You buffoon this isn’t about me!”

Sportacus eyes widened and his mouth stood agape for a second. Wasn’t about… “Who is this about?”

Robbie blinked at that and all too soon his face went blank. He was clamping shut because in all his blind fury and excess emotional turmoil he realized that Sportaflop maybe didn’t know this information for a reason. Maybe he couldn’t help-or atleast wasn’t supposed to. Physically shaking himself off Robbie gave Sportanope a sour look and muttered a rough, “Nevermind Sportastink you couldn’t help anyways.”

Before Sportacus could do anything to stop him the villain slinked off, faster than either of them thought the taller man could move, and leaving Sportacus with a horribly greasy coil in his chest. What had happened?

Robbie on the other hand was oblivious to the crestfallen look on the elf’s face. Either that or he didn’t care. Afterall, now that his emotional baggage had been dumped he was thinking a bit more clearly. He was thinking about his next course of action while brushing off the bump of pride that was telling him to regret going after the elf with such blind fury because no, no, he didn’t have time for that. He still had business to attend to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated writing this. It sounds too angsty-even to me, someone who thrives off of That Edge(tm)-and I tried to edit it down a bit but some of it was too necessary to be cut out entirely.  
> Hey atleast there was some bitter sweet and all too obvious pinning happening here? Too bad Robbie was too angry to return the mushy gushy emotions ugh
> 
> Also, THERE WILL BE FLUFF NEXT CHAPTER!!! I have it half written down and I s2g the next chapter is overly fluffy. Finally, we are getting to the cute domestic situations that I started writing this fic for.
> 
> ANyways, thank you for reading I really truly appreciate the fact that so many people seem to be enjoying this and leaving such nice comments? It warms my heart and I only hope that I can continue providing for y'all OTL  
> Thanks


	8. ...Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie and Robbie do a bit of cleaning.

A crashing sound woke her up as something narrowly missed pounding right into her. Trixie jolted, springing up to stand inelegantly on the fluffy orange chair as she leaned around to look at the soaking wet pile of limbs that might have been Robbie Rotten. The villain in question groaned inelegantly as he rolled off of his position on his telephone and nightstand (which might or might not have been broken from the full force of him landing on it). Lying face down on the floor he huffed and puffed, wishing for nothing more then a quick and easy nap but of course that was too much to ask for because as soon as he found himself getting comfortable he heard a high pitched, “OMG ROBBIE!” and felt dust being stirred up as the little human who made the noise jumped onto the floor and crouched by his side.

“Robbie, Robbie!!” ,Trixie yelped as she began to shake the tall man furiously, “ROBBIE ARE YOU ALIVE?”

He swatted her away with as much force as he could muster, a deep sneer apparent on his face as he leered, “YES you tiny elephant!! What do you think I am?”

Trixie stopped at that, thoughtfully looking away from him before looking back with a simple, “Dead?”

Robbie sputtered at that and fully pushed the little girl off of him by flailing his arms. Sitting up-and then standing up with a few loud cracks-he put his hands on his lips and gave her a rotten sneer that looked more comedic than it had a moment before. So comedic, in fact, that Trixie began to giggle as she jumped up and watched him “glare” at her. 

Robbie hemmed and hawed at that before lifting up a finger and leaning down as if he was about to lecture her. He changed his mind before a single word came out and instead shook his hands in a dismissive motion while groaning, “Ugh, never mind!” he then stomped off. Trixie took a moment to recover herself from how hard she was laughing but then a lou, “Hey! Where’d you go?” ,escaped her as she realized he had  _ actually _ left the room. Quickly looking around, she darted after his shadow.

It lead her to a dusty, cobweb filled hallway she wouldn’t have even known had existed if she hadn’t watched him walk into it. It was dark and somehow damp feeling and she was just beginning to scooch closer to Robbie for comfort when suddenly he threw open a rusty door and a puff of dust blew out from the new hole. Coughing dramatically he waved a hand in his face and looked to her, “Well looks like we have a lot of work to do.”

“We?” ,she yelped, not at all pleased by the idea of working on whatever was in that room.

Robbie leaned into the room and flipped a light switch without giving her reaction any thought. The lights flickered at first, not wanting to fully come on to which he growled and switched the thing on and off a few times until suddenly it stayed on revealing a spacious room that had been dirtied with age.

Trixie followed him in and saw the queen sized four poster bed complete with orange sheets that looked slightly faded. She saw a metallic looking vanity with a large mirror, a closet hanging half open with boxes and chipped toys spilling out. There was even a bookshelf with a few dog eared novels laying sideways in it. That was actually the first place Robbie went, picking up a book with a small ‘hmm so that's where it went’ he tossed a few books over his shoulder and dusted his hands together. Looking to her he then held out his hands as if he was presenting the most beautiful room in the world and said, “So, what do you think?” There was a greasy smile on his teeth that immediately fell as she said incredulously, “You have a bed?”

“Yes I do you tiny idiot now help me clean this up or I won’t let you sleep in it!”

Trixie blinked at that, initially unsure of what he was implying before the realization washed over her and made her practically /glow/ with joy. He was… he was offering her a proper room- a proper place to stay.

“Yes Mr. Robbie!” she chirped and over enthusiastically went to grab an armful of stuff from the closet.

“It’s Mr. Rotten to you!” he harrumphed before nagging her about being more careful and telling her where to dump the junk.

Some time passed like that in silence. Despite how clean the concrete floors had looked there was a lot more… junk… then Trixie would have initially guessed. She didn’t even want to ask what half of it was (or why the villain needed it) but she did eventually have a question that she wanted to ask. At first, she tried to hide it, so when Robbie stopped with a dramatic sigh and demanded for her to ‘spit it out’ she looked at him as if he was crazy. She was hoping to play it off but that only made him cross his arms as he elaborated, “You look more worn out then me which is impossible because  _ i’m _ the  _ lazy _ one so you might as well just come out with it.”

He tapped his foot in expectancy and when she saw he wouldn’t relent she sighed, sitting down on the bed (causing them both to cough when a heavy cloud of dust puffed into the air), and then she said, “You know I just…”

“You just?” he replied impatiently.

“I just don’t know why you’re doing this for me.”

To which she heard a heavy groan. She looked up in surprise (she certainly hadn’t expected that ghastly sound in return). Robbie put a hand dramatically on his head, his eyes closed as if this was all just a cruel joke someone was playing on his life. 

“Listen here kiddo,” he began , sounding exasperated, “This isn’t for you it’s for me. I don’t want to wake up to you snoring or bouncing trash around again you got it?” 

Trixie’s could feel her face reddening a bit at the feeling that he was attacking her pride. He didn’t have the right to say those things (after all, he woke himself up with his own snores not her!) and if he really felt that way then she could just leave-she didn’t want to be in a place where she was unwanted-but before she was able to properly express her feelings the tall villain slid onto the bed next to her. Clasping his hands in his lap he said in a quieter tone, “But, if it was for you would that really be so bad?”

“What are you saying” ,she articulated slowly looking at him through slanted eyes.

“Oh nothing nothing.” Robbie replied lightly as he stood up and straightened his waist coat, “It’s not like i’m implying that you deserve your own bedroom or anything. That’d be ridiculous you’re too noisy for that.”

“Hey!” Trixie shouted, suddenly beaming when she realized what he was doing. She then began to berate him with fake anger. He ‘shouted’ too, just as fictitiously and the rest of the cleaning process went by smoothly if not, almost, happily. Trixie could have sworn she even saw the villain smile once or twice. 

When all was said and done, (more like dusted and reorganized) Trixie had her own bedroom. It was the first time in her life that she could say that and although she would have usually marvelled at the fact, after eating dinner and taking a shower, she found herself too tired to really revel in it. Instead she all but fell into the surprisingly comfortable mattress (freshly dusted since it obviously needed that), pulled the sheets on top of her self and within moments was almost asleep. A few seconds after she had adjusted herself, however, the door was cracked open and a bit of light spilled in. Startled, Trixie questioned lamely, “Who’s there?”

Silence greeted her for the first few moments before Robbie finally coughed and said, “I was wondering if… you needed anything?” His voice sounded strange. Trixie was having a hard time placing why due to how badly her brain craved sleep but if she was more awake she would have said he almost sounded… nervous?

Trixie was startled by how odd the question and situation was but simply dismissed it with a flippant. “Sleep.” before rolling over so that her back faced him

“Okay”

The light persisted for a moment longer before widening, and the steady sounds of footsteps grew closer before finally she felt the covers being lifted to cover a spot on her back that was exposed to the open air. He then awkwardly patted her arm and turned away with a quiet and awkward, “Sleep… good.” before finally leaving the room-for good-and shutting the door behind him.

  
The last thing she thought before falling into darkness was, “What a kook.” Although, it was more endearing than she would have thought even just a week before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What if I told you... the next chapter is even fluffier?
> 
> Might post it tomorrow, I'm rushing right now and really busy so aaa
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading! Tell me if anything looks weird?


	9. LazyCity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie Rotten decides it's time to go shopping and Trixie has learned to stop asking questions.

Like clockwork, Trixie was awake way before Robbie had probably even settled into his first deep sleep cycle. Which was to say that she was up bright and early, ready to play, while he was just settling down for “the night”. Honestly though, she could have stayed asleep for a bit longer. It was, actually, a bit surprising that she woke up so early considering that her bed was as comfy as it was. But right now all she wanted to do was get up and stretch her legs a bit. Trotting out of her room she grabbed an apple from the kitchen with the intention of eating for breakfast and was just turning around to leave the bunker when she heard an ungodly sound behind her.

 

“You’re up early.” ,Came a partially incoherent and overly gruff voice.

 

Trixie all but jumped out of her skin when she looked and saw Robbie with one eye open bundled up in his chair and looking at her. She didn’t know which was scarier the fact that he sounded like a toad this early in the morning or that he was even up.

 

“I…” she didn’t even know where to start.

 

“You aren’t going anywhere.” Robbie said, sitting up with a series of pops that made Trixie wince in sympathy before finally stretching his hands above his head with an even louder crack. It was like witnessing a great beast awakening from a 1000 year nap.

 

“At least not in that” Robbie finally stood up and shuffled over to her, “You’ve been wearing the same clothes for a week and-yes yes I know what you’re about to say ‘but i’ve washed them Robbie’ and so  _ what _ ? It’s time for you to get something new.”

 

He crossed his arms in absolute decision and Trixie wasn’t sure how to feel. Scared, surprised, anxious, thankful? She didn’t know what and for a moment she felt like objecting (simply because she was so overwhelmed) but then, suddenly there was an impish smile on her face.

 

“What if I want to wear all pink like Stephanie?” ,she ventured knowing it would cause the older man to gawk. And he  _ did _ ! Almost as soon as she said it, his mouth was wide open and he looked down at her as if she was suddenly made of chocolate pudding. He was positively mortified-so much so that he stuttered as he backtracked, “No-no no absolut-”

 

Trixie couldn’t take it any longer. With a snorting laugh she shouted “I was just kidding!” ,and thereby let Robbie retain some piece of mind. Happily, the young girl then hooked her arm into one of his.

 

“You better be” Robbie grumbled and allowed himself to be dragged up the chute into the all too bright world above.

 

The first thing they did that day (other then comment on how surprisingly sunny it was-in fact, it almost looked like the rain storm from the day before had done more then just wash out the loose topsoil, everything looked somehow brighter) was eat breakfast. Robbie insisted that a dingy piece of sports candy was  _ not _ a breakfast and so he took her to a small cafe that Trixie had only seen in passing, sat her down and allowed her to order anything she wanted. To the nervous waiter it probably looked like they were having a terrible meal. Robbie was having trouble eating the food he had ordered (despite it being the sugary-est thing in the restaurant) and spent most of his time pointing his fork at the girl complaining how she was eating like a messy child. Trixie quipped that that was precisely what she was and that he was going to have to get used to it. She might have even started eating a bit messier to punctuate her point-which would have been really rude if not for the fact that they both understood how shallow their petty argument was-if it could even be called an argument (both of them were trying not to smile. 

The shopping district of Lazytown’s shabby and not quite lazy inner city was their next stop. It was a tucked away place that they kids never went to alone and even at this early hour of the morning was still bustling. Not too much that Trixie could have gotten lost but enough that Robbie would gripe and grouch when she got a little too excited by the window displays and ran off. 

It was clear to her, by the second store, that neither of them knew how to shop. Robbie’s excuse was that he had a devilishly handsome frame that only hand tailored clothes could correct show off (or something long winded and overly complex like that, she stopped listening after the second sentence) while her’s was that she hadn’t ever really had the chance to go shopping, at least not with the intent to pick out stuff for herself. The both of them tore up department stores pulling out clothing they thought she would wear.

 

“What about this?” Robbie would say, pulling out something clearly not her size and a bit too stiff to allow her to play around in.

 

“Yuck. More like this!” She’d exclaim finding something a bit too colorful for Robbie to do more then squint at.

 

The workers seemed like they wanted to kick them out or cry about the mess they made but, surprisingly, by the time slightly after noon rolled around Robbie’s arms were full and shaking with a mountain of bags of new stuff. But more importantly, the two of them were  _ talking _ . Robbie hadn’t really planned on carrying a mountain of junk or getting to know the little parasite he was now living with but he had found out that he… didn’t exactly  _ mind _ conversing with the loud child. He learned that she actually hated the color yellow, wished that eggnog was more than just a seasonal treat, and had read books Robbie hadn’t realized that she could even pronounce the titles of.

The last one was a kicker. “You read Shakespeare? Ha and i’m Julius Caesar!” ,he had scoffed.

 

“Yeah I have!” she quickly defended herself, “Midsummers Night’s Dream was interesting!” 

 

“You’re just saying that because it’s the obvious choice!”

 

“No that’d be Romeo and Juliet! ‘And sleep ,  that sometime shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company.’ Where’s that from?” ,she was giving him a snarky look that even rivaled one of his own. If not for the fact that he was intent on winning this small debate he might have been impressed.

 

“T-that was an obvious quote everyone knows that one! Besides everyone knows Shakespeare too name one person who doesn’t!”

 

“Ziggy!”

 

“He’s a child!”

 

“Well i’m a child!”

 

“But he’s a  _ child!! _ ”

 

They humored each other. Or at least that’s the way Trixie saw it. She was laughing most of the time, either that or smiling and looking at him with a knowing glint in her teasing eyes. But she was paying attention too. It was a bit harder to pull information from the tall man but things came when she made it seem like his pride was being hurt if he didin’t defend himself. Things like the fact that Robbie could in fact cook, he just prefered to show off his technical genius and allow machines to do it for him. And, also, he didn’t just sleep when the kids were being quiet-he actually owned a television and he had to find a time to read and do crossword puzzles eventually. He also apparently liked to draw when he was her age which, was surprising but not wholly so considering she had seen a few costume doodled on discarded pieces of paper thrown in random corners around the lair. 

All in all, the time passed evenly and smoothly. The only awkward moment they had was at the grocery store, when Trixie was picking out food to eat.

 

“No.” Robbie’s voice was flat, definite (if not a little anxious).

 

“Oh come on it’s just a pineapple-look it’s even canned it won’t bite you or anything.” ,Trixie waved the fruit in his face a little causing him to flinch a bit.

 

“I refuse. I’ll buy you new shoes and even sheets that have  _ pink  _ in them but I absolutely forbid that fruit to be brought into my house.” ,okay he was definitely anxious.

 

“What do you have against pineapple, huh? Are you afraid of the spines or something?”

 

Robbie’s face paled at that and Trixie knew she had hit the nail right on the head.

 

“HA! So you are afraid of pineapple! Listen it’s not like this has spines it’s canned pineapple so it’s been skinned.”

 

“Skinned!! OH NO NO  _ NO _ !  _ You _ are putting that down right now and we are going to leave this store  _ immediately _ ! There is a nice bakery  _ right across the street, _ I don’t have time for pineapples with their crawly looking  _ skins  _ and their-”

 

“Crawly looking!!” Trixie chortled with a hearty laugh, “You don’t like what they look like? I thought you had tried eating one whole but you mean they just look-”

 

“HUSH LITTLE GIRL!” Robbie shouted so loud that a little old lady that had been scooting down the aisle stopped and started back tracking at a very slow, a very cautious, pace.

 

“Just… just anything but pineapple.” he answered a bit quieter, his eyes darting to the unintended victim.

 

“Anything?”

 

“Oh no…” ,it was a simple groan but it spoke volumes.

  
Looking back on it, that hadn’t been a necessarily awkward moment. Instead Trixie regarded it as something a bit more endearing. Robbie had looked a little embarrassed but at the end of the day that didn’t even matter because later, after they had finished putting her new stuff away, Robbie had ‘innocently’ offered to braid her hair but instead tied it in a big knot. Well, ha, jokes on him Trixie was perfectly fine with the new hair style and he was the one who eventually caved telling her to sit down so he could fix it ‘or else he would start getting seriously devious’ (or something cheesy like that). Maybe Trixie would have believed it earlier that morning but after spending even just one short day with him he had to agree with Stephanie. He was just a big softie. A kooky one, definitely, but there was something about that Robbie that wasn’t completely Rotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIRST THINGS FIRST I REALLY REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THE NICE COMMENTS!!!!! I forgot to say that while posting the previous chapter (because I was literally walking out the door while I was posting, whoops) but you guys don't even begin to understand how happy they make me? I was never expecting for this to be something that made people so happy but, seeing all you guys enjoy this is literally making this story just that much more fun to right. Truly, I am so thankful for you guys taking the time to comment it always leaves a cheesy smile on my face when I read them OTL
> 
> The other thing I want to address is the chapter counter on this fic. Before this chapter, it was at 10 but officially and finally it's going to be 12. I have the last three chapters written out and there's no room for anything else. I mean, there will definitely be a sequel to this but it's going to be less Trixie centered I think and i'm probably going to take a few weeks to just relax before I start posting again. Then again, I intended for this fic to also include some Robbie angst in which he talked about having an abusive childhood but that never happened so... we will see ;^)
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and let me know if anything look awkward. As I just mentioned, I really do appreciate all the feedback and I'm very glad that you guys are enjoying this OTL Thanks!


	10. Welcome Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie tries to play with her friends but something's... different.

There was an excited shout, “Trixie! Where have you been!!”

The girl in question smiled brighter than she had been a second before, and hurried her already rushed pace to the basketball court where her friends, Pixel, Stephanie, Stingy, Sportacus, and Ziggy were doing some light stretches-probably in preparation for a rousing game of basketball if the orange ball sitting in the corner was any indication. It was already mid-morning and the birds chirped their greeting while the kids who hadn’t initially saw her and Sportacus turned around with slight surprise and excitement painted onto their features.

Trixie skidded to a stop in front of them, raising a hand and opening her mouth, in an attempt to greet them. But, before she could they started to bombard her with questions.

“According to my calculations it has been 56 hours, 33 minutes and 42 seconds since the last time we’ve seen you which is approximately 3 times longer than the average amount of time that passes when we aren’t together!” ,Pixel stated eagerly, a slight crinkle of concern in his brow.

“Yeah what has MY friend been up to? You’re never gone from me this long.” Stingy said impatiently.

Then Ziggy added something that changed the conversation topic, “WOW!! Trixie is that really you?! I almost didn’t recognize you with all that purple!”

The buzz of excitement and wonder that had been surrounding the kids stopped when ziggy mentioned that because, it was true. Instead of her usual red, yellow, and white outfit she was wearing something new and purple. Well, mostly purple. The top was more or less the same as the old one, still red and white and featuring a cartoon character from her favorite show, in fact it was even the same cartoon character only this time the character was wearing a purple shirt, giving the viewer a thumbs up and had a smattering of three purple stars on one side of her body. Trixie’s usually red pants were replaced with light washed jeans and her sneakers were brand new-and purple. Her yellow hair things (Which she had thought looked like mustered and insisted on changing) were now also that funny shade of purple. 

It wasn’t a big deal so she treated it as such (despite the absurd amount of surprise on her friends faces).

“Well that’s because I went shopping silly!” Trixie laughed while twirling around slightly, “What do you guys think?”

Sportacus was the one to speak up this time with an ever encouraging compliment of, “You look wonderful! Sometimes it’s good to change things up!”

Trixie swore she could hear Stingy mumble something about if he could take her old clothes but nobody really paid it any mind. Instead they all smiled and went back to stretching, this time with Trixie in their midsts.

The rest of the morning went by smoothly, after stretching they started playing a game of tag. It was, of course, really fun and just what Trixie needed to get rid of all that excess energy she seemed to have lately. It came out of nowhere but ever since she had woken up that morning she felt like she was a brand new battery, filled with endless energy that she couldn’t just wait to use! Eventually though everyone else got tired and said they needed a break.

“Aw comeone guys, you’re all so slow!” Trixie teased (despite the fact that her forehead was, admittedly, a bit sweaty too).

“More like you’re so fast, Trixie!” Stephanie spoke up as she leaned against a picnic table, drinking a bottle of water, “I don’t think i’ve ever seen you so… bouncy.”

“Yeah!” Ziggy agreed, “You seem a lot more, um…, happier then you have been!”

“Happier? I’m the same as always Ziggy!” ,Trixie admonished, putting her fists on her hips as if to prove it.

The kids laughed at her silly pose and they continued chatting for a little bit. A quip was exchanged here and there but all in all, Trixie was more interested in getting back to playing then talking with her friends until someone mentioned Robbie.

She didn’t hear who mentioned him first (she was too busy looking at a really cool rock she found in some dirt) but she did hear the tail end of Stephanie’s sentence as she said, “...Robbie Rotten hasn’t done anything in almost a week.”

Almost immediately Trixie piped up, “Yeah that’s because he’s been busy!”

“Busy? With what?” ,Stingy asked in his slightly too snarky tone and suddenly all eyes were on her.

“Well he’s probably...” ,And that’s when she realized  _ all of their eyes were on her _ .

When she had started speaking, she hadn’t really realized that the implications of her automatic answer would be considered suspicious. She had just gone with her gut instinct which was to let the other kids in on something she knew to be true. But, considering how everyone (but Sportacus of course) seemed to be almost suspicious of her answer judging by how they looked at her... well, she suddenly felt self conscious.

“Well, um… with stuff.” ,Trixie ended up finishing, scuffing her purple shoe against the dirt and clasping her hands behind her back in embarrassment.

“Yeah,” Pixel furthered the conversation, “But what kind of stuff?”

“Probably something weird.” ,Ziggy added helpfully, not realizing what connotations that carried.

“Uh-uh! Trixie said, suddenly invigorated despite her earlier nervousness, “It’s not like he’s a weird guy or anything!”

“Well he kind of is” ,Stephanie countered in her slightly sassy way.

That was when Sportacus, who had been off saving someone came back to see the tension, and concernedly asked, “What’s wrong everyone?”

Trixie waved at the group in general with open hands of exasperation, “They’re calling Robbie Rotten weird!”

“Statistically, he has been known to do weird stuff.” ,Pixel added.

“That’s because he has trouble sleeping, that’s all!”

“And how would you know that” ,Stingy practically glared.

Trixie stopped when she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to know as much as she did.  She had got so caught up in protecting Robbie’s reputation that she hadn’t thought of what it might do to her own (not that she minded being associated with him she just didn’t like the scrutiny her friends were putting her under, it was nerve wracking).

“Um… well” she started again, “i’ve been hanging out with him?”

“You’ve been hanging out with  _ that guy _ ?” Stephanie looked at her like she had grown a second head.

The way she said it, though, got Trixie riled up again and although she was nervous a moment before her hands were now clenched with fustration. How dare she judge someone she didn’t know, she thought as she defended, “Yeah! I’ve even been staying at his house! got a problem with that, Pinkie?”

It was obvious by everyone’s silence and the practically audible crickets that she had said too much and although she initially thought she could stand up proud to it using anger and the heat in her cheeks, her face paled when Stephanie threw the obvious (and slightly concerned) question at her.

“Why are you staying at his house, Trixie?”

Woops, she said too much again; feeling the heat on her cheeks at the silence and practically audible crickets she was faced with she wished there was someway for her to take it back. Biting her lip her eyes were downcast as the obvious question was thrown at her by Stephanie, “why are you staying at his house?”

Uh-oh. That heat from her face seemed to be radiating out of the collar of her shirt as she bit her lip and let her eyes fall down cast. She felt ashamed. There was no reason for it at all other than the fact that she  _ just felt _ like she had done something wrong. Even Sportacus seemed to think so by the way his eyes were wide and his mouth slightly open in a display of uncertainty. Opening her mouth she was about to stutter out something (she wasn’t sure what, just anything since the silence seemed to have gotten  _ a lot _ heavier) when suddenly the hearty sound of rustling bushes tore through the space behind her and a cold hand was placed firmly on her shoulder.

Jumping practically out of her skin a familiar and comforting voice came from behind to say in that goofy, incredulous, accent, “Because I adopted her  _ obviously _ ."

  
Trixie looked up to see Robbie Rotten, fake mustache in one hand and sparkly purple full body suit that looked faintly like an acrobats tightly hugging his frame, his face calmly stern even after all the kids shouted in their usual disbelieving tone (as if this was all one of his games): “Robbie Rotten!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things,   
> 1\. Trixie’s name is not spelled like Trixie canonly… apparently…. According to an older lazytown website its spelled like Trixksy (or something close to that, I don’t have the link with me right now??) and i’m dying. Of course it’s like that,,,, I’m not gonna change it right now but hoo boi that had me shook  
> 2\. Next thing I want to share is a small story that you can totally skip but that also had my shook. So my friend, who isn’t into lazytown at all (atleast not like I am) apparently was thinking of me and decided to try and get into lazy town fanfiction as his way of showing that??? It was three am and somehow he found THIS FIC with out knowing that I was the one who wrote it and like a month ago, he was telling me how he was reading fanfiction and he described “a really good one” in which “Everyone was there but like two character” and I started… sweating because that sounded alot like the fic I was writing. It turned out he read my fanfiction with out knowing I was the writer and I was dying,,,, you don’t know how much that wrecked me. 
> 
> Due to that (and the fact that it’s been MONTHS OTL) I bring you this chapter. I apologize if there is any continunity errors between this chapter and the last one (it’s been a while and, in general this was a harder chapter to write as opposed to the more relaxed style the last few chapters took) but I should have the last two chapters out either tonight or within the next couple of days. Either way, I want to try and get them all out soon as an apology for abandoning this story for a while and also because I forgot how much fun writing this has been??? Honestly, I didn't even purposely stop updating (it's not like I left the fandom or anything) I was just depressed then busy with my creative writing class (which eats up a lot of my free time/energy that I use for writing), then depressed again, then more interested in other things-you know the drill
> 
> Anyways that’s all I have to say for now! Thanks for reading, I hope this was enjoyable and also THANK YOU if you decided to stick around i'm a bit shocked but c'est la vie I guess


	11. Home (From Another Perspective)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback sequence taking place between chapters 7 and 8 (when Robbie still had some 'business to attend to') since you guys wanted more then an implication ;^)  
> Enjoy

Robbie Rotten slicked back his rain drenched hair with a shaky hand. He had long ago succumbed to allowing his body to be wracked with shivers. It was only natural when someone walked a few miles in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. In fact, it was quite surprising that he could still feel his fingers what with the icy cold drops of water shooting from the sky like they were. He was too focused to really be thankful, though. Instead his piercing grey eyes were intently studying the boring low cost architecture of the government building he was standing in front of. His eyes swept across the low bearing roofs, lack of grass or proper plants, the brass name plate and all he thought was,

‘ _ So this is the place’. _

He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting. Maybe for there to be someone wielding a chainsaw while holding open the front door for visitors. Some dead cats (or atleast birds) littered around the front-heck even a literal monster splitting open the ceiling would have felt more comforting than the absolutely mundane and anticlimactic vibe this place was spewing. It just didn’t make sense-couldn’t make sense. He didn’t want to believe that such an average place, such an  _ average place _ that didn’t deserve a second glance, could do such horrible things to one little girl.

Sighing Robbie shook himself out of his thoughts when he realized no one was going to invite him inside, it was either he did this himself or continued sitting out in the rain like a buffoon. Pushing inside of the institution the bare but slightly dingy walls and sparse furniture were of little interest to the villain. Instead, he made a beeline for the front desk where a boring (but pretty) looking red head sat over a messy stack of papers. Robbie ringed the bell.

The women looked up, startled and flustered, but quickly replacing it with a tired smile as she chirped, “Ah yes! How may I help you?”

Robbie face was a blank slate, solid and firm as he demanded, “I want to see whoever runs this place.”

The women’s eyelashes fluttered, “Ah, um, I, I’m sorry but you can’t  _ just _ see her. I could tell you she stopped by though.”

Robbie looked down at the girl, assessing his audience with a trained eye and allowing the gravity of his wishes to sink in (which further unhinged the clearly nervous receptionist, poor thing) before he propped an elbow up on the high counter that separated the two, leaned his chin into his hand and gave her a catty but adroitly bored stare as he enunciated, “And  _ what _ is  _ your _ name.”

The girl’s face was red at this point, “I, um, I’m Cathy?”

Robbie made a long  _ mmhmm  _ sound before dryly responding, “Yes, well, how do I file a complaint against an  _ employee _ of this establishment?”

Cathy looked confused for half a moment before the sharp realization of what he was implying hit her. It was so distinct that Robbie could practically feel it due to the sudden pallor in her face and series of small incoherent stutters trailing off her lips when it happened. Honestly, Robbie almost felt bad for her (she was probably a nice girl and it’s not like he was directly mad at her) but he wasn’t here to fool around.

In what could be considered the knick of time, a stout woman walked into the lobby from one of the connecting hallways and the girl desperately jumped out of her seat with a, “Ms. Plum! I-um-this m-man was here to see you!”

Robbie twirled around to ‘Ms. Plum’ just in time to see one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows rise up an inch as she looked between the two of them. With an extra long and slightly harsh glance to Cathy an exasperated sigh passed through her thin lips as she said, “Well, follow me then.”

Without a glance back she turned around and started walking away. Robbie slinked after her, cool and collected, until they reached the woman’s office. Ms. Plum sat down in front of an all too clean desk and waved to one of the chairs on the opposite side of it as Robbie entered the room. Without even waiting for him to sit down she asked, “Well, what do you want?”

Right then and there, Robbie almost lost it. If he wasn’t a professional at hiding his feelings he swore he could have flipped that little woman’s desk, broken the very tiny window that shown behind her and yelled in definitely not pg ways exactly  _ what he wanted _ . Instead he simply clenched one of his fists, put on a sarcastic smile and found a way to turn her blatant apathy into a weapon.

“Ms. Plum, how many kids would you say are currently residing in this orphanage right now?”

“Pardon me?” ,she startled and, ah, there it was, that spark in her eye which showed that he had her attention.

Sitting down his smile widened, “Would you say somewhere between two hundred and three hundred children?”

“More like around five hundred fifty.” She couldn’t help but reply, “Where is thi-”

“So if one went missing.” Robbie offered before she could continue her previous sentence, “You would definitely be able to tell me which one?”

“Why yes of course. What do you think we are-a zoo?!” ,she was getting indignant, her chest lifting ever so slightly at the dripping wet and probably half psychotic man that had wormed his way into her office.

“If that’s the case then which one?” ,Robbie began to examine his nails, as if what he was asking was casual chit-chat between two buddies.

The women scoffed at him, her eyebrows drawing in with resentment. “ _ Pardon _ ?” ,she gritted through clenched teeth.

“Here’s the deal.” Robbie bolstered, placing his hands flat on the desk and standing so that he was looming over her, “You’re over populated, overworked, underfunded and underpaid. You also have a  _ certain  _ kid who’s been missing for the better part of two weeks and, well, wouldn’t it be nasty if  _ somehow _ the police were to be notified or-even worse-if they were told exactly  _ why _ she went missing?”

Robbie paused to lean in so close to the women that a drop of water landed on her cheek, “And if you think that all i’m going to do is threaten you then, well, you clearly haven’t heard of the name Robbie Rotten.”

At this point the women was clearly panicked and her natural reaction to that looked like it was going to be anger. Robbie could see that he had reached her tipping point and if he didn’t digress quickly then he was going to get the brunt of it. 

“But I have a solution!” the villain sprung up, causing the women to jump in the process, “If you simply continue  _ pretending  _ that this girl never existed then we can both pretend we didn’t have this little talk and you’ll never see me again. The only thing you have to do is slide over some documents and a pen then i’ll be on my way.”

Robbie sat down, crossing his legs and looking at her with that same sarcastic smile on his face that he had worn when he’d walked into the room. 

And Ms. Plum, oh Ms.Plum. She looked halfway in between exploding and fainting. It was a dreadful sight and for a moment Robbie felt like he had overplayed his hand but then, the fiery red color in the manager’s face slowly began to fade, the wrinkles that had formed began to smooth out and she was almost back to looking apathetic. Licking her lips a short sound that might have been a chuckle left her lips as she bent down and pulled open a drawer.

“I’m not usually one to go around the law, Mr. Rotten.” She spoke while audibly slapping down an adoption form and pen in front of him, “But, for a moment, you were amusing.”

  
For the second time that day, Robbie was signing his name. Only this time it wasn’t anger that dug his pen into the page, instead it was a funny feeling in his heart that made it feel light and, as he went  _ home _ , gave a spring in his step that carried him all the way through the rainstorm, unperturbed. It was funny, really, he had never really considered the dank silo to be much of a home but for some reason the word popped into his head when he remembered a certain loud brat was waiting there for him-and would probably be for many days to come. The absolute ridiculousness of it was probably what caused him to slip down his tube and land wrongly onto the little table beside his chair. Yeah, definitely that (and not that it made him giddy-and also that he remembered last second that if he landed in his chair that he’d crush the little girl).


	12. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Picking up where chapter 10 left off, Trixie's friends comment on Robbie Rottens bold statement and Sportacus realizes his mistake

“Ah what I mean…” Robbie digressed, retracting his arm as his shoulders hunched slightly and he took a step away from Trixie, “Is… uh...”

“Wow Trixie you can be adopted!?” Ziggy suddenly piped up oblivious to the tension in the air.

That was the first time he had said anything throughout this whole conversation so his voice and the unaffected content (which so starkly contrasted with the earth shattering revelation everyone just had) made everyone turn to look at him. Everyone except for Trixie that is.

Adopted? Since when had he… when had he adopted her? Her eyes couldn’t help but linger on the tall, slowly retreating man as she marvelled at what exactly he had said but after a moment she tentatively looked towards Ziggy.

“Y-yeah?” ,she stuttered, uncertain how she should respond to such a happy kid or, well, to the situation for that matter. It was all unfolding so rapidly.

“WOW!! That’s amazing! I wish I could have adopted you that way we could have had sleepovers every night!” He exclaimed unabashedly, seeing the good in all this.

Stingy then gasped, as if he had just been personally offended, “Trixie! Why did you let him adopt you when you could have been MY sister?”

And suddenly everyone was bursting in with a string of their own compliments and complaints. Trixie smiled faintly at all of it and then looked back up at Robbie with the brightest smile she’d given that day, “Well as nice as it would have been to live with you guys Robbie’s the best!”

There was a chorus of giggles and laughter from all the children in response but Robbie barely heard it. Instead he started stuttering in indignation, his shoulders shooting up past his beautifully gelled hair as his nose wrinkled up in embarrassed ‘disgust’. There might have even been a tint of pink to his face as he looked wildly from Trixie to the kids.

“I-I have a machine to go d-do something with!!” ,he exclaimed just to get away from them and their sappy feelings. And, before anyone could object he nimbly began to slink off with Trixie’s loud laughter sounding behind him. He couldn’t help wonder what was making his heart feel all gooey-goopy gross but he did know that Trixie, that darn kid, was going to be the end of him.

As more distance accumulated between him and the kids he figured that was going to be the end of the situation until, when he had gotten about a block away from all the sappiness happening in the center of town he heard an annoyingly thick accent shouting ‘Hey Robbie!’ from behind him. Turning around he saw, who else but, Sportacow skidding to a stop and then Robbie felt the man's warm hands land on his shoulders. Robbie allowed it to stay there for the short moment it was as he heard Sportagross say, “Robbie, ah, I think I need to apologize!”

He was incredulous, baffled. “For what Sportasnore?”

“Well, ah,” the hero began to shyly rub the back of his neck, “I wanted to apologize for thinking it was you who needed help that day in the rain. I see now that I was being blind and I hope to be more observant in the future!”

Robbie continued to stare for a moment. Was this man serious? An elegant snort sounded as he stuck up his nose, “Like I care if you pay attention to those-those brats! Just don’t go thinking that i’ll ever need help from you Sportayuck!”

Twirling on his heel, he attempted to walk away only for Sportacus to yell, “Wait!”

“What now!”

“I also wanted to thank you Robbie!”

Robbie sputtered, leaning back as the sports-elf came around to stand in front of him and continued.

“I know you like your quiet and that children are loud but you’re making Trixie really happy! I wanted to thank you for helping her out and also tell you that if you ever need a hand i’m here to step in!” ,Sportacus beamed, genuinely sincere despite the atrocious things that just fell out of his mouth.

Robbie stuttered as he realized his face suddenly felt really warm, it was so unpleasant but not as unpleasant as what Sportadoofus was implying. Him, nice? No way no how this hero must truly be naive! Robbie composed himself with a hearty scoff and then turned away, stalking off quickly with nothing else but a ‘What ever Sportanut!’ thrown behind his back.

And behind him, Sportacus simply smiled. The hero might have messed up, something that under most circumstances would be dire, but in this moment it only left him feeling elated, light. There was a lesson to be learned here and Sportacus, being so fond of morals and lessons, thought back to it as he stared at the other man's quickly retreating form. Maybe, if he had to sum it up into a single sentence it would be something like, sometimes, it's okay to mess up because there will always be someone there to catch you. Maybe you won't be excepting it but someone some where has room in their heart for you, all you have to do is give them time to open up. And time, was something Sportacus had plenty of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, i'm a little sad to be ending this. It was a pleasure to write and to have it end so swiftly is almost anticlimactic otl  
> Thanks to everyone who supported me with kudos and comments, they meant a lot even if I didn't express that properly!
> 
> As to address the ending, this is the first part in a multific piece (as i've implied a few times) and although I don't plan on jumping into the second part /just/ yet I will eventually be making a sequel.  
> If that isn't your style then pretend you didn't read that last paragraph but, otherwise, I hope to be seeing you all in the next installment in which the REAL sportarobbie starts ;^)


End file.
